Preseason's winding down, and we're only four days away from puck drop — October 7th in Pittsburgh. That creates roster deadlines and final cuts, which makes this conundrum all the more painful. The New York Rangers announced that Scott Morrow and Gabe Perreault are being assigned to the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack.
Gabe was the 23rd pick in 2023, a back-to-back World Juniors champ with USA, and a Boston College standout. This route makes more sense than last season, when Peter Laviolette burned the first year of his entry-level deal just to park him in the press box. In Hartford, he’ll get 20+ minutes a night, top power-play time, and the chance to be ‘the guy’ instead of languishing in the bottom six on Broadway.
UPDATE: Scott Morrow and Gabe Perreault have been assigned to the Hartford Wolf Pack.
— NY Rangers PR (@NYR_PR) October 3, 2025
The Morrow Mystery:
Morrow had an intense camp. He moves the puck in a way only Adam Fox does on this roster. Without him, who’s running the second power play unit — the still-inconsistent Braden Schneider? The raw Matthew Robertson as your seventh D? Instead of giving the kid a shot, they’re hanging onto guys like Urho Vaakanainen and Carson Soucy, who bring nothing special. If Mike Sullivan wasn’t going to play Morrow, then fine — sending him down makes sense. The argument is that both should play significant minutes in Hartford rather than sit on the bench here. Injuries will happen, and we'll see them soon enough. Yet at some point, this organization has to stop defaulting to "safe veterans" and see what their kids can do. Otherwise, why bother building a prospect pool at all? Perreault and Brett Berard in the AHL make sense. Let them earn their call-ups. Yet Morrow looked ready. That's the first real surprise of camp.
If you’re going to tell me Perreault is going to get 20 minutes per game in Hartford, ok, I’m cool with that.
— John (@92In82) October 3, 2025
However, I don’t get Morrow outside of contractual obligations and if you’re losing Soucy or Vaakanainen, is that really a big deal? This team lacks puck overs outside… https://t.co/3od1tOojDH
Opening night coming into focus:
Opening night currently looks like Will Cuylle joining captain J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad on the top line. Artemi Panarin will once again be skating with Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière on a line, and it is possible that line will interchange with the Miller line.
The third line has Jusso Parssinen centering September superstar Noah Laba and Taylor Raddysh, while Adam Edstrom, Sam Carrick, and Matt Rempe round out the fourth, with Connor Sheary and Jonny Brodzinski likely serving as extras. On defense, it's Vladislav Gavrikov paired with Fox, Soucy with Will Borgen, and Vaakanainen alongside Schneider, with Robertson slotted as the seventh. Between the pipes, it's Igor Shesterkin as the starter, backed up by Jonathan Quick.
Noah Laba and Brett Berard are still with Rangers - this will get interesting #NYR
— NYR Louie ™️ (@NYRLouie) October 3, 2025
When you zoom out, the Blueshirts have a top-20 prospect pool. Morrow, Perreault, Brett Berard, and Brennan Othmann, who will coincide in the A. There's also Laba, newly-minted Malcom Spence from last summer's draft, and Drew Fortescue. The rubber should meet the road in the NHL shortly, yet the issue is quality versus quantity. Outside of Gabe and Morrow, most of these skaters project as depth guys than difference-makers. That's not what you want if you're trying to bounce back from missing the playoffs. Spence has upside, but he's still in college.
Still, it feels a revival is on the horizon. Similar to 2023, the hunger is there with a new coach after a previous disaster, and Sullivan brings a contrasting energy. These moves are the right ones over an 82-game grind, meaning the doubts about these descions is likley the fan fighting the journalist in me.